Recent news
December 2011
GHTC members author op-ed on need to sustain funding for global health R&D
December 13, 2011 --In an op-ed in The Hill’s Congress Blog, GHTC Director Kaitlin Christensen, along with coalition members Jim Connolly, president and CEO of Aeras, and Mel Spigelman, president and CEO of the TB Alliance, call for sustained support for global health research and development funding (R&D) in response to a report released last week that shows this critical funding is declining.
The recently released G-FINDER showed that funding for global health R&D dropped for the first time since 2007, when the report began tracking these trends. The report also found that product development partnerships (PDPs), which receive support from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors to develop new tools to fight diseases around the world, were heavily affected by this drop in funding. Much of the progress made in global health over the last decade can be attributed to PDPs ushering products through development and delivery. The authors cite the decline in funding as “especially troubling given that there are more than 100 products in PDPs’ pipelines.”
G-FINDER also revealed that the public sector significantly lowered its investments in global health R&D in 2010, with eight of 12 public funders reducing their funding for neglected disease R&D. The authors stress the importance of continuing to support funding for global health R&D, especially in the wake of budgetary issues around the world.
“Many are quick to cite the global financial crisis as a justification for these cuts. This perspective ignores an immutable reality–diseases of poverty rob millions of health, hope, and prosperity, prevent global economic development, and will not simply go away.”
They conclude, “We have made huge progress over the last decade but will not reach the finish line without urgent action. Governments must seize the chance to invest in these critical life-saving technologies and ensure that drugs and vaccines developed with a decade of public investment won’t stall in late stage development. They should consider how investment in new tools, especially those for TB, will save money over the long term.”
